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Posts tagged with DONGURI

There is a rarity in the 2011 Zagat New York City Restaurants guide: a restaurant that scored an unconditional 29 for food. The happy recipient of that rating, which had not been bestowed since the original Bouley got it in 1996, is Le Bernardin, a restaurant that has been at or near the top of the rankings since it opened nearly a quarter century ago.

Le Bernardin was in a trifecta of sorts: Per Se received a 29 for service and for décor, and Asiate, which seems to own the category, also got a 29.

In recent years, a few restaurants have received 29’s for food, but always conditioned by a “low response” or “less reliable” note, so that they were not included in the 50 “Top Food” list or the categories “By Cuisine” in the all-important front of the book. Just last year, that was what happened to Aureole, which had recently moved. In the new guide, Aureole scored 26.

For 2011 there are also a number of restaurants, including Annisa, with a 28; Sasabune, a 29; and Donguri, a 27, that are listed for “Top Food” under the headings according to cuisine, but that did not make it into the group of 50 for “Top Food” even though they had no “low response” indication. A spokeswoman for Zagat said that this year a “higher cutoff” in terms of the number of votes was used in selecting the restaurants for the top 50, but she would not elaborate. Nina Zagat, a founder of the guide, said that everything is always done strictly according to the numbers.

A reader wanted a fabulous meal — money no object. Another desired something interesting on the Upper East Side. Plus anniversary meals and dinners with siblings. Keep those questions coming, by e-mail or on Twitter.

Q.

My wife and I will be having dinner in New York on a Saturday night in October and I want a fabulous meal and décor. Money is not an issue, and I am thinking Daniel. What suggestions would you make?

A.

Money is not an issue! I love that phrase. It comes up in my correspondence more often than you might think. It leads me to believe the economy may be farther along the road to recovery than many yet believe. No one was saying “money is not an issue” two years ago.

But of course money is always an issue. To steal from David Mamet, who put the line in his 2001 film “Heist”: “That’s why they call it money.”

You are thinking about having dinner at Daniel. The two of you can get three courses there for $105 and pair these with wines, and walk out for around $300. That’s fair value if the food and drink are excellent, with service to match. (Reliably they are, at Read more…